Barbenheimer, Glicked, Dunesday and now Ramazilla. Australian audiences have crowned a new box office double act, and this one belongs to a younger, more multicultural Australia.
Hindi-language movie Ramayana: Part One finished number one at the Australian box office this weekend with $2.7 million and 117,000 admissions, ahead of Japanese-language Godzilla Minus Zero at number two with $1.6 million and 55,000 admissions.
The pair also held the top two spots on opening day. It is the first time two foreign-language films have finished first and second across a weekend in Australia.
Ramayana recorded the second-biggest opening ever for a Bollywood film in Australia. Only Dhurandhar: The Revenge has opened bigger, meaning the two biggest Bollywood openings in Australian history have both come in 2026.
Filmed for IMAX and backed by the biggest budget in Indian film history, the first instalment of the two part epic arrived as the defining release of the Diwali season, after becoming the first Indian trailer to pass one billion views.
Godzilla Minus Zero recorded the third-biggest opening ever for a Japanese film in Australia, and the biggest ever for a Japanese live-action film. The biggest and third-biggest Japanese openings in Australia have both come in the last 12 months.
Together, the two films led a strong weekend at the box office, with admissions up 20 per cent on the same weekend last year. Year-to-date admissions are up 19 per cent, and with a new blockbuster releasing every week in the lead-up to the holidays, audiences are expected to keep growing.
The result is a milestone for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) audiences, who are increasingly shaping what succeeds at the Australian box office.
Ramayana, released for Diwali, spoke directly to Indian Australian communities, while Godzilla Minus Zero took Japanese cinema to a mainstream crowd.
Younger audiences are leading the way: two out of three cinema-goers were aged between 18-39. For a generation that watches stories from around the world, language is no longer a barrier to a big-screen night out.
“This weekend shows how much Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse audiences are
shaping cinema,” said Guy Burbidge, managing director, Val Morgan Cinema.
“Two films in two different languages outsold every English-language release in the country, driven by young Australians who see a film like Ramayana or Godzilla as a must-see event, wherever it comes from.
For brands, the message is clear: CALD audiences are turning up to cinemas in force, and the big screen is one of the best places to reach them.”
